I don't know about you, but I can say that grade 11 was probably my toughest year of high school. The transition from grade 10 to grade 11 was not very seamless in my experience. It's not only a time where you go from being a junior to a senior, but your courses are also going from academic to university or applied to college level courses. The workload also seems to increase and since most students are unsure of where to go in the future or what they want to do, they end up taking all of the "six-pack" courses to keep their options open (all three maths and all three sciences - and of course, English).
During class this week, my colleagues presented on some very hard and challenging concepts in the grade 11 math curriculum. I especially enjoyed Sarah's presentation. Her presentation topic was trig identities and she had come up with such a creative way to get students to practice trig identities. She had created two matching activities. The first activity was a sheet of scattered steps to a complete solution. Students must cut out each step and match it to the correct identity and the end result will be a completed proof. She also indicated the start of each proof with a bolded squiggly line. This gives the student a hint about where to start. Also, since they were already written out and there in front of them, they could easily shuffle things around. There is something permanent about writing things down and having to erase them afterwards which causes a lot of frustration. But this way, if things didn't work out, they could just move things around and rearrange it to get it to work.
The second activity was a 4x4 square and each side of the square had to match up with the correct identity - it was kind of like a puzzle! It was definitely challenging since I hadn't done trig identities since high school and maybe first year of university, but it was so much fun too! I thought it was a great idea that she posted the primary trig identities on the board. This helped immensely and we could do the same and leave them up for our students as an accommodation if needed. Sarah's activities where just right and I believe she achieved flow - it was just the right amount of challenging that it was borderline frustrating, but it was balanced with just the right amount of fun and satisfaction. According to the flow theory, flow is the happy medium between anxiety and boredom. When doing this activity, I was in a state of "flow". It put my skills to the test. It wasn't so easy that I was bored, but it wasn't overly challenging that I became anxious or frustrated with it.
Cheers,
- The Function(al) Teacher
During class this week, my colleagues presented on some very hard and challenging concepts in the grade 11 math curriculum. I especially enjoyed Sarah's presentation. Her presentation topic was trig identities and she had come up with such a creative way to get students to practice trig identities. She had created two matching activities. The first activity was a sheet of scattered steps to a complete solution. Students must cut out each step and match it to the correct identity and the end result will be a completed proof. She also indicated the start of each proof with a bolded squiggly line. This gives the student a hint about where to start. Also, since they were already written out and there in front of them, they could easily shuffle things around. There is something permanent about writing things down and having to erase them afterwards which causes a lot of frustration. But this way, if things didn't work out, they could just move things around and rearrange it to get it to work.
All in all, I really enjoyed her presentation and her activities. In fact, I have been thoroughly enjoying all of my colleagues presentations. It has been a great way to experience my fellow colleague's different teaching styles and to build a repertoire of activities to use in my future classroom! Grade 11 can be a challenging year for many so if I ever get the opportunity to teach the grade 11 functions course, I will definitely keep this in mind. It's easy for schooling to become overwhelming for students and once anxiety sets in, it's hard for them to be motivated to continue learning and move past it. Therefore, it is crucial that we as educators present the "hard" topics in such a way that is appealing, for lack of a better word, to students.
As for the joke of the week, I couldn't choose between the two so I thought I'd share both!
- The Function(al) Teacher
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